Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter!
Parallel translations
- KJV If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain;
- BSB Rescue those being led away to death, and restrain those stumbling toward the slaughter.
- NKJV Deliver those who are drawn toward death, And hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.
- NASB ¶Rescue those who are being taken away to death, And those who are staggering to the slaughter, Oh hold them back!
- NLT Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die; save them as they stagger to their death.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Act to rescue those being unjustly led toward death; do not stand idle.
Overview
Wisdom commands active intervention on behalf of those facing wrongful death or destruction. To know of such peril and do nothing is a culpable failure. This love that acts to save reflects the heart of God and finds its supreme expression in Christ, who came to rescue those staggering toward death (Luke 19:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 82:4Rescue the weak and needy. Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.”
- Isa 58:6–7“Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to release the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?
- 1 Jn 3:16–17By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
- Job 29:17I broke the jaws of the unrighteous, and plucked the prey out of his teeth.
- 1 Sam 26:8–9Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered up your enemy into your hand today. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.”
- Luke 10:31–32By chance a certain priest was going down that way. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
- Luke 23:23–25But they were urgent with loud voices, asking that he might be crucified. Their voices and the voices of the chief priests prevailed.
- Acts 21:31–32As they were trying to kill him, news came up to the commanding officer of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
- Acts 23:23–35He called to himself two of the centurions, and said, “Prepare two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea, with seventy horsemen, and two hundred men armed with spears, at the third hour of the night.”
- Acts 18:17Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn’t care about any of these things.
- Acts 23:10When a great argument arose, the commanding officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 24:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.